'Mom, you won!'

Hailing her as a master of the short story, the Royal Swedish Academy has named Alice Munro as the winner of the world’s biggest literary prize, marking what observers called a monumental day for both the author and Canadian writing.

Munro on Thursday became just the second Canadian-born author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, and only the 13th woman to do so since it was founded in 1901. The prize is worth approximately $1.3 million.

“I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win,” the reclusive 82-year-old Munro said when reached in Victoria, B.C. She added that she was delighted and “just terribly surprised.”

In a statement supplied by her publisher, she went on to say she hoped the accolade would help turn on a spotlight on Canadian writers.

“I am dazed by all the attention and affection that has been coming my way this morning,” she said.

“When I began writing there was a very small community of Canadian writers and little attention was paid by the world. Now Canadian writers are read, admired and respected around the globe. I’m so thrilled to be chosen as this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature recipient. I hope it fosters further interest in all Canadian writers. I also hope that this brings further recognition to the short story form.”

Munro had been considered a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in literature, with British-based betting company Ladbrokes positioning her as the second-most-likely recipient this year behind Japanese master Haruki Murakami.

“We’ve been teased with this prospect for years now, and for it finally to happen, and for Alice not to be kept up all night waiting for no news, is such a wonderful thing,” said Deborah Treisman, her editor at The New Yorker for the past 12 years. “It brings this incredible validation, both of her and her career, and of her form — the dedication to the short story.”

Technically, she’s not the first Canadian to win the prize. That would be Saul Bellow, who was born in Lachine, Que., but moved to Chicago as a child. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976, but is largely considered a U.S. writer.

Munro is acclaimed for her finely tuned storytelling, which is characterized by clarity & psychological realism. #NobelPrize#Literature

In the minutes after the announcement, Twitter and Facebook exploded with well wishes from other Canadian authors, including Margaret Atwood, another long-rumoured contender for the prize.

“This is no different than Canadians winning at hockey at the Olympics,” said Geoffrey Taylor, artistic director of the International Festival of Authors. “This is a win for us all. Canadians, by our very nature, are not very nationalistic. But things like this suddenly make you want to find a flag.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the prize “is the culmination of a lifetime of brilliant writing.”

“Ms. Munro is a giant in Canadian literature and this Nobel Prize further solidifies Canada’s place among the ranks of countries with the best writers in the world,” Harper said. “I am certain that Ms. Munro’s tremendous body of work and this premier accomplishment will serve to inspire Canadian writers of all ranks to pursue literary excellence and their passion for the written word.”

Her longtime publisher and editor Douglas Gibson, who has worked with Munro since 1976 — at a point where she was found herself pressured to write a novel, he convinced her to continue writing short stories — admitted he could not sleep the night before the announcement.

“I was like a kid on Christmas Eve,” he said. “And then Santa came.”

Over the course of a career that’s stretched over 45 years — Munro didn’t publish her first collection until she was 37 years old — she has gone about her work, quietly and without fuss, writing stories mostly set in the back roads and small towns of southwestern Ontario, where she was born.

In an industry that has faced the bankruptcy and merger of publishing houses, the collapse of bookstores and the rise of ebooks, Munro has remained a constant.

“It’s the crowning achievement,” said Brad Martin, the president and CEO of Penguin Random House. “As a Canadian, we should all be proud of her. I think she’s the best short story writer in the world. This just confirms it.”

Her first book, Dance of the Happy Shades, won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 1968. She won the same prize in 1978 for Who Do You Think You Are? (published elsewhere as The Beggar Maid) and in 1986 for The Progress of Love. She’s twice won the Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award: The Love of A Good Woman won in 1998, while Runaway took home the prize in 2004. Most recently Munro, whose work has been compared to that of Anton Chekhov, was awarded the Man Booker International Prize. At the time, the judges said: “Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.”

On behalf of all Canadians, congratulations to Alice Munro, “master of the contemporary story,” for her Nobel Prize in Literature. #canlit

Although Munro is a perennial bestseller in Canada, booksellers across the country were optimistic the prize would introduce a new crop of readers to her work. At Munro’s Books in Victoria, the store that Munro co-founded with her first husband, Jim, in 1963, store manager Jessica Walker said upon hearing the news on the radio Thursday morning she immediately ordered more books from Munro’s publisher, and, upon arriving at the store, moved every copy they had in stock to the front of the store. “She’s won so many accolades, and she’s held in such high regard by other writers, that this is kind of like the cap on (her) career,” Walker said.

Her future as an author remains uncertain. In June, after winning the Trillium Book Award for her 14th collection, Dear Life, she told the National Post “I’m probably not going to write anymore. And, so, it’s nice to go out with a bang.”

Jack Rabinovitch, the founder of the Giller Prize, said Munro’s win would be celebrated at the award’s 20th-anniversary gala ceremony next month. “It’s about time,” said Rabinovitch. “What it does is recognize the fact this country has a tremendous plethora of good writers. I think (Munro) is going to be the first of many. (Margaret) Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Rohinton Mistry. These are all outstanding writers.”

With files from The Canadian Press

A look at Alice Munro

Age: 82
From: Born in Wingham, Ont. She now splits her time between Clinton, Ont., and Comox, B.C.
First work published: 1968s short-story collection Dance of the Happy Shades, which won a Governor General’s Literary Award.
Most recent work published (2012): Dear Life.
Awards: Munro has previously won: Three Governor General’s Literary Awards, two Scotiabank Giller Prizes, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Man Booker International Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Trillium Book Award, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Marian Engel Award.
Did you know? Munro and her first husband, James, opened Munro’s Books in Victoria’s Old Town in 1963 — exactly 50 years ago. The store mainly stocked paperbacks at a time when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. The store has switched locations twice but remains open a half-century later.